Big increase in student expulsions, suspensions

Alexandra Smith

Students in NSW are being suspended or expelled from public schools at record rates, with the latest figures revealing a 35 per cent rise in the number of times students have been sent home for misbehaving over the past five years.

The most recent Department of Education figures show there were 18,186 long suspensions in 2012, 1300 more than in 2011 and 4780 more than in 2007. In 2012, there were 12,922 students sent home for more than four days.

Long suspensions are for at least four days but in 2012 the average length of exclusion from school was 11.8 days. Almost half of all long suspensions are for persistent misbehaviour while 39 per cent are for physical violence.

Principals say suspensions are not designed to punish students but the National Children's Commissioner, Megan Mitchell, will tell an education summit on Tuesday that research shows excluding students from school does more harm than good.

Ms Mitchell will tell the summit that school intervention is the most effective way to "address and prevent" the development of emotional or development disorders yet an increasing trend is to use suspension or expulsion as the first response.

"The impact of this in the worst of cases is entrenched behaviours, disconnection from school, and ultimately denial of one of the most basic of child rights that has major implications throughout the life course – the right to an education," Ms Mitchell will tell the National Summit on Behaviour in Australian Schools, in Adelaide.

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Ms Mitchell said a Legal Aid NSW study revealed that 82 per cent of the highest users of legal aid services had been excluded, expelled or suspended from school.

But the president of the NSW Secondary Principals' Council, Lila Mularczyk, said suspensions were not designed to punish students but provided schools with the opportunity to find support for them and their parents.

Ms Mularczyk, who is also principal of Merrylands High, said it was her understanding that the 2013 figures would show a decrease in the number of short and long suspensions and the spike in 2012 was because of an enrolment boom.

"What we had in 2012 was more kids entering kindergarten and an increase in the school leaving age," Ms Mularczyk said.

"But suspension, when it does occur, gives a school the time to find intervention and support not only for the child but also for the parents.

A spokesman for the department said public schools had high expectations for the behaviour of students and the standard of discipline, and would not tolerate inappropriate behaviour.

"Principals are authorised to take decisive action when the safety and wellbeing of others is at risk, or where a student has an ongoing history of disruptive behaviour that impacts on their learning or wellbeing, or the learning or wellbeing of others. In these contexts suspension can be used as strategy," the spokesman said.

He said more than 72 per cent of students who are given a long suspension never receive a second and only 1.7 per cent of the total 2012 school enrolment were given long suspensions, a figure which has remained stable.